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My four minutes of fame…

…well, six minutes actually! Interviewed on local BBC Radio in connection with the St Ives Flower and Produce Show we’re putting on in the Corn Exchange on Sat 11-Sep… and which is steadily taking over my life at present!

We’ve been getting some good coverage in the local press about our quest to find the trophies from when the show was last held in 1995. So I thought I’d give local radio a try and popped them an email Thursday morning. Got a call by noon asking me if I’d like to be interviewed the following day about 08:25! Said yes, we would. Asked the team who’re working on the Show if any of them would like to fill a few minutes on live radio with as series of hmms, erms and you knows. Rather surprisingly everyone thought I was just the person to do it… yeah, right!

So here’s the audio clip of the interview. Followed the politician’s maxim of answering the question you wished the interviewer had asked you and not what he actually asked, so was a bit embarrassing when he said ‘OK, you’ve got the plug in now’! Don’t I drone on about the web site… but they didn’t tell me how they would suggest listeners make contact and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity for promotion. Oh, and if anyone’s counting, there are a total of 30 ‘erm’s in the clip.

We’re getting a lot of good coverage… two articles in the local press, the radio interview and there’s posters and flyers all around town. But with two weeks to go for competitors to get their entries in we’ve received exactly ZERO entries! I’m sure they’ll all come in a rush at the end, and today I had an email asking if it really was only £1.50 to enter the Show, regardless of the number of classes entered. At least we’ve got our costs covered with the £200 sponsorship money collected over just two weeks. Sure we’ll do a lot better next year on sponsorship if we allow more time.

So my main task over the next couple of weeks is to customise the spreadsheet I’ve been given for creating a database of entrants, classes, and which will be used to produce the entrants class cards and score the category winners. Oh, and to enter the details of the thousands of entry forms that’ll be flooding through my door shortly!

Been experiencing the unbelievably poor standard of some of the bank staff. Son in law Chris has been attempting to set up his bank account and get overdraft facilities for his new limited company, C. S. Carpentry Contractors Ltd. It was his bad luck to fall into the clutches of Anita Hans, the local Barclays Bank business account person. Should have seen how it was going to go when she tried to avoid seeing us by explaining she didn’t handle transfers of business accounts. Why? We got over that hurdle by persuading her it was a new account set up.

Things looked brighter as she sounded very positive during the initial meeting and confirmed all should be set up in about seven to ten days. Over a month later and Chris still couldn’t access his new account on-line, and after much hassle she confirmed no overdraft facilities!

In the process she explained to Chris how tough it was for her having to read all sixty pages of his method statement and business plan (several weeks after she actually should have done), how successful she’d been arranging an overdraft for another company, ignored his ‘phone calls and told him just how lucky he should consider himself that he had her to look after him (I’ve added that bit, but that was the general theme from Ms Hans).

Bear in mind she’s saying all this to a young man who’s working unbelievably hard both physically and in the hours he does to make a success for his young family (and to keep my daughter in the manner she’s become accustomed!). So we’ve gone to Lloyds, who were much more professional.

So if you’re looking for a business bank account in the Huntingdon area, make sure you avoid Anita Hans of Barclays Bank!

Sister in law Trudy popped up with niece Sarah for a few days. Had the usual good laugh, particularly when we’d had a few pear wines. Trudy’s sense of humour is a lot like mine; for example, just seconds before I was going to do the radio interview she quipped ‘What a time to develop a stammer!’… cue loads of laughter.

Been pondering the wealth of foliage in the polytunnel that should be butternut squash. Trouble is they all look like summer squash. Sure I planted the butternut squash in here said I to Linda. And then she’s wandering about the front plot when she spots a couple of plants she put in some weeks ago… ones I was going to throw away as excess to requirements but she thought she’d plant anyway. Yes, you’ve guessed it, the missing butternut squash. They’re going well, but my lack of organisation is somewhat embarrassing and a source of merriment to wife and daughters. Thank goodness Linda is now organising both me and the plot, leaving me to amble around doing the planting.

Sorry to hear that someone else is suffering at the hands of Anita at Barclays Bank in St Ives.

I recommend you go to Lloyds Bank. They treated my son in law like royalty, offered him facilities to bridge funding gaps, called round to his house with documents, kept him informed what was happening. Very professional.

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